Drives Him Insane
by JadeEye
Summary: Something a bit different....Tell us how you feel about it.


A/N: From the outside, Rei and Asanuma's relationship makes no sense. And that's the way they like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Asanuma or Rei. And that's the way they like it.

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Drives Him Insane

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Rei and Asanuma don't hold hands.

It is only one of many aspects of their relationship that makes everyone wonder why they started dating at all. Or if they really are dating. Rei, after all, treats Asanuma in exactly the same way that she did before she agreed to be his girlfriend: with a very, very cold shoulder.

"That drives him insane, you know," said Lita one day when they were sitting in a booth at the arcade.

Rei looked up unconcernedly, using her straw to lift a frozen piece of strawberry from her smoothie and place it on her tongue.

"What does?" she asked idly, as though she didn't know to what her friend was referring. There were, after all, many things she did that drove Asanuma insane.

Lita nodded her head toward the counter, where Asanuma had strode to heckle Motoki after hopping up from the girls' booth a moment ago. "He kept trying to hold your hand, and you kept moving it. His fingers must have gotten within an inch of yours at least three times in the last five minutes. And that's just what he tried _above _the table." She lifted her eyebrows meaningfully. "Who knows what he was trying under it?"

Beside Lita, Ami blushed. "Lita!"

"Oh," said Rei. "That." She glanced up, placing another sliver of icy strawberry on her tongue to melt, and saw Asanuma leaning against the counter, watching her. She let her eyes rest on his for the barest second before letting her gaze slide away as though she hadn't noticed him.

" 'Oh, that?' " echoed Lita with amusement.

"Rei…" Ami spoke tentatively. "Don't you think you should be a little less, well, cavalier?" Her fingers fidgeted with her milkshake glass, and her eyes flicked nervously to the counter where Motoki was now talking to Asanuma. "I know you two are dating, but – um – one would think – I mean – _psychologically_ speaking – " She lowered her voice, leaning forward. "Won't Asanuma begin to lose interest in your relationship if you don't indulge him in his wishes for – um – " She flushed even darker, " – physical contact?"

Rei heard footsteps clip toward their table, then, and Ami's eyes flicked up. She made a little squeak, flinging herself back into the booth cushion so hastily that the table shook a little. Lita held her soda steady and grinned, watching something behind Rei.

As though she didn't notice the warm body that had stopped right beside her shoulder, Rei unclipped her hair, letting it fall onto her back. "So does anyone know if we're still on for the mall tomorrow?" she said to her two friends. "Serena promised to help me pick out a bikini for our beach trip."

She felt him shift behind her. The lightest change in the weight of her hair on her back made her aware that he had lifted some of the strands and begun to sift them through his fingers.

"Never mind," she heard herself say as she leaned down to pull her cell phone from the pocket of her skinny jeans. The movement tilted her head away from his hand; she felt her hair slide from his fingers. "I'll just text her to see what time she and Shields are getting back from the meet tomorrow."

A hand slid into her vision. Fingertips smudged with charcoal and red tempera from the canvas he'd been working on, it took the cell phone from her grasp and flipped it shut.

"Dare just texted me," Asanuma spoke into her ear, though loudly enough for Ami and Lita to hear as well. "They'll be back by one."

Rei didn't shiver. She just acknowledge the information with a "Thanks" and moved toward the other end of the booth seat, making room for him to slide in. He stretched out, arm along the top of the booth, just brushing her hair, and slid her phone back across the tabletop toward her, keeping his fingertips atop it as though it was a chess piece he wasn't yet prepared to surrender.

Rei made no move to take it back. She turned, instead, back to Lita and Ami, ignoring Lita's raised eyebrows, and joined their conversation about Serena's chances of making it to nationals for the hundred-meter dash.

Barely a whole minute passed before she felt the subtle pressure of her cell phone being slid back into her pocket.

Smoothly she extricated herself from the conversation and, picking up her purse and returning Motoki's goodbye wave, made her way out of the arcade and to the parking garage at the end of the block.

She was unlocking the passenger door of his silver Mustang with the key he had given her when he came up behind her.

He planted his hands against the door, one on either side of her, the insides of his elbows brushing the sliver of exposed skin at her hips like hot breaths.

For a moment she didn't do anything. She only tilted her head around and back, chin brushing her shoulder, to cock an expectant brow at him.

Then he had wrenched her around, and her hands were in his hair, and his body was pressing hers against the Mustang, and they were kissing.

"For God's sake, Rei," he breathed after a few minutes, tearing away from her for an instant before she used her grip on his blond curls to pull his lips back down to hers. "You know I – can't stand it – when you – " He broke off, sucking in a hiss of breath as one of her hands slid under his collar to dig her nails into his shoulder blade.

"Pretend I don't know you exist?" Rei murmured against the corner of his mouth. She was going to say that she did know that he couldn't stand it, that that was why she did it, but he was kissing her again, and she could feel the car door handle digging into the small of her back, like a hand pushing her closer to him, and she twisted against it.

Asanuma's arms froze, then jerked her closer. The air that was forced from her lungs by the movement tore their lips from each others' for a brief second, and she let her eyes flutter halfway open to meet his darkened ones.

"Ami said – " He used her trick from before, cutting off her words, and she followed his mouth for a second before breaking away. " – I don't give you enough – " He cut her off again, and her whole body pulsed as though her throbbing heart had grown too large to fit in her chest and spilled into the rest of her body, pulsing in time to his harsh breaths. " – physical contact."

Asanuma's responding laugh was soft and close into her hair. "I'm very happy to say – " He turned his head just enough to nip at her fingers where they clung to his jaw. His voice was something like a growl in her ear. " – that she couldn't be more wrong."

It was some time later that they broke apart again, foreheads pressed together, and she breathed, "Lita said I drive you insane."

Asanuma opened his eyes slowly. They were dark, dark, dark, like the violet from her eyes had bled into his light irises. Her arms tightened around her neck, her knees shook a little, and she felt herself beginning to slide down the sleek side of the Mustang.

Asanuma's eyes went darker. She heard his breath hitch and felt his muscles tighten beneath her hands, and then suddenly she was sitting on the Mustang's hood, and he had his arms around her waist and his face in her neck.

"I'm _very_ happy to say," he murmured against the pulse in her throat, "that she couldn't be more right."

Rei and Asanuma don't hold hands. And, just like everyone thinks, it drives Asanuma insane.

What they don't understand is that he loves every second of the drive.

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A/N: _Please_ review. This is the first thing like this that I've written, and I am rather desperate to hear what you think.


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